A total of 147 passengers and crew members onboard an Air Asia Ranchi-Mumbai flight had a narrow escape after the aircraft was hit by a bird just before take off on Saturday morning, a day after a major aircraft mishap took place in Kerela.

But the flight had to be grounded eventually, as it developed a snag while taking off around 4.15pm. Airport director Vinod Kumar told The Telegraph Online in the evening that another flight was expected to come from Calcutta and fly the stranded passengers to Mumbai.

"While taking off, the pilot sensed a spark in one of the engines, forcing him to abort take off," Kumar said.

Earlier, explaining the bird-hit, Kumar said the bird-hit occurred when the aircraft was cruising on the runway before finally taking off. He said, “At about 11.45am, a bird hit an Air Asia flight while it was rolling on for take off. Luckily, no untoward incident occurred and all 147 passengers who were on board are safe. Soon after the incident, the flight was manoeuvred towards the apron. After undergoing customary technical inspection, the flight will take off in an hour. Prima-facie, the aircraft is fit to take off.”

The airport director added that unlike the earlier problem of bird hit due the menace of hordes of road side fish and meat sellers in Hinoo and airport road periphery, the situation around the airport has improved in the years after sustained drive by the district administration has minimised the risk.

“Still, since birds can’t be bound by any geography, consider it as one of the stray incidents,” he noted, assuring that all passengers are safe and that the airport management is always on high alert to avert such situations.

In September last year, a Delhi-bound Indigo flight carrying over 100 passengers had a narrow escape when a bird hit the aircraft at runaway in Ranchi. Again in April 2018, another Indio flight suffered bird hit, but no injuries were reported to any passengers. In July 2017 too, an Air Asia flight with 174 passengers on board for Delhi had to be aborted after bird hit damaged the plane.